Water cooled stator bars for electrical generators are comprised of a plurality of small rectangular solid and hollow copper strands which are brazed to one another and brazed to an end fitting. The end fitting serves as both an electrical and a hydraulic connection for the stator bar. The end fitting typically includes an enclosed chamber for ingress or egress of stator bar cooling fluid, typically deionized water. Another opening of the end fitting receives the ends of the strands of the stator bar, the fitting and peripherally outermost copper strands of the stator bar end being brazed to one another. Over time, leaks have variously developed about the connection between the stator bar ends and the stator bar fittings as well as between adjacent strands.
There have been a number of prior efforts to seal the leakage paths between the stator bar ends and the stator bar fittings as well as between adjacent stator bar strands. See for example U.S. Pat. No. 5,581,869 issued Dec. 10, 1996 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,605,590 issued Feb. 25, 1997. While these efforts have reduced the likelihood of leaks developing, there remains a need to ensure that both original equipment manufactured parts as well as field repair of leaks uncovered in water cooled generator fitting to strand joints are effectively precluded.